Some of the health budget is used for social care," he said. "That’s a decision we made actually back in 2010.

"There’s enormous pressure on adult social care budgets. Part of that is a health issue and that is why we’ve already made steps in that direction. You’re not going to get me to comment in detail on this spending review."

Along with areas such as pensioner benefits, schools and international aid, health has been protected from the cuts to budgets facing other areas.

This ringfencing has weakened the political case for reform. When all budgets are subject to the same principles of value for money it is, quite simply, harder for individual ministers to complain. But when some spending receives special treatment then consensus breaks down. Divisions are created in Cabinet and the government no longer presents a unified front on its mission of rescuing the public finances.

Miranda Olding from the MS Therapy Centre Beds & Northants and Lindsay Harrison from Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust have been named as the joint winners of the Multiple Sclerosis Trust’s "My Super Nurse" award 2013. The award recognises the work of specialist nurses who have made a real difference for people with multiple sclerosis (MS).

The report, Healthcare groups: an alternative to merger mania?, found that formal mergers could dent staff morale and lead to falls in productivity. And it says targeted alliances, time-limited partnerships and collaborative working between organisations tended to produce better outcomes.

The point of this paper is to remind people that joint working involves a buffet of options, not a fixed menu.

The new options for government through health care groups set out in this paper can strengthen rather than reduce the connections to local people, and help maintain safe local services. They could also mean less upheaval for staff and for patients, many of whom worry that they will lose a valued service or even their job.

Research to be published later this summer by the Chartered Management Institute shines an interesting light on the issue. The work has found the NHS has a poor record in investing in its managers. Compared to other sectors, it spends nearly 30% less on training its leaders, the research suggests. The CMI goes on to argue that this is misguided as good management leads to an engaged workforce that is more productive and provides better care.

Without early identification and solution, emotional issues can develop into more serious psychological problems. Depression increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by one and a half times compared with the general population. So stroke survivors with depression are more likely to have another stroke. Yet the majority of post-discharge care concentrates on physical rehabilitation.

This is not just an issue for stroke survivors; there are huge implications for carers too. More than half people caring for stroke victims are stressed, and it gets harder the longer they are caring. When the stroke survivor's condition changes, they may be facing their own health problems, but by that time health and social care services have tailed off. Carers are both physically and mentally exhausted, with six in ten not getting enough sleep. We found that levels of anxiety and feelings of depression are as high for carers as they are for stroke survivors.

Shared decision-making is collaborative and is an effective form of decision-making. It happens sometimes, but not enough. Implementation of shared decision-making rests largely in the hands of health professionals and whether or not they choose to live the approach. Our evaluation found that, while some staff were worried about the impact of shared decision making on their workload, they now see it as a "different way of doing something they do already, but with better outcomes". As one clinician in North Shields told us: "We probably don't do shared decision making as well as we think we do or as much as our patients want us to."

In today's SocietyGuardian section, health correspondent Denis Campbell reports on new research on minimum alcohol pricing in Canada. The research, he says, shows that stipulating how much pints of beer, measures of spirits and glasses of wine have to be sold for brings significant health benefits. Campbell reports:

The research, commissioned by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) think-tank, published on Wednesday, comes just as the coalition decides whether to proceed with its original plan of bringing in minimum unit pricing (MUP) in England and Wales as a major new assault on the misery caused by heavy drinking – including death, disease, injury, crime and lost productivity. Organisations such as the IAS and Alcohol Health Alliance fear that David Cameron will confirm he is scrapping the pledge, as he recently hinted to MPs.

Yet the IAS report makes clear that minimum pricing leads to big falls in alcohol-related deaths and admissions to hospital. Crucially, as ministers decide what legislation is and is not included in next week's Queen's speech, it also suggests that Sheffield University researchers' calculations for the Department of Health (DH) of MUP's impact – which helped persuade DH and Cameron to back it – significantly underestimate the amount of harm that would be avoided.

An LCBO employee checks the stock at the Queens Quay liquor store in Toronto. The government controls the supply and distribution of almost all alcohol sold in the country. Photograph: Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star

Cabinet ministers formally submitted their offer of cuts to the Treasury on Tuesday. The Treasury is looking for £11bn overall cuts for 2015-16, but the composition of such savings is up for grabs.

Hunt has told colleagues there is no sign anyone in the Treasury or Downing Street is willing to see the already pressurised health budget raided in a way that breaks coalition commitments to allow its budget to rise by 1% a year. He is convinced that his department – facing massive demographic-led costs pressure – needs its protected status to handle growing demand.

There's also news that the number of measles cases in south Wales has passed 1,000.

If there's a story, report or event you'd like to highlight – or you would like to share your thoughts on any of the healthcare issues in the news today – you can get in touch by leaving a comment below the line or tweeting us at @GdnHealthcare.